Confusion Reigns Over Missing Jet's Final Location

As the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has expanded, teams from many countries have been involved. This navigator was aboard a Vietnamese helicopter searching the waters off that nation's coast.

At a news conference Tuesday in Sepang, Malaysia, authorities held up pictures of the two Iranian men who are said to have boarded Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with stolen passports. The man at left is said to 19-year old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad. The other man was not identified. Authorities believe the men were trying to emigrate to Europe.

Wong Maye-E
/ AP

Originally published on March 12, 2014 4:23 am

This post has been updated.

There's no sign yet of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — the Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard that disappeared early Saturday while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

At the same time, there is confusion as to where authorities last spotted the jet.

The head of Malaysia's air force was quoted as saying the jet was hundreds of miles off course when it was last seen on radar. Another Malaysian government official, contradicted him, saying there's no evidence the jet varied very far off its intended course.

Late Tuesday, the air force chief denied he ever said the plane had turned back toward the Strait of Malacca.

Tuesday's news about the flight and the search for clues to its disappearance includes:

-- An Hour In The Wrong Direction? Gen. Tan Sri Rodzali Daud, chief of Malaysia's air force, first told reporters Tuesday that data from military radar at the time of the plane's flight have led authorities to extend the search to the Strait of Malacca on the western side of the Malay Peninsula, Malaysia's Berita Harian newspaper reports.

Later Tuesday night, David denied saying that military radar picked up the aircraft near the strait.

"I wish to state that I did not make any such statements," Daud said, according to Reuters and the AFP.

Note: This section about the possibility that the plane was far off course was added at 11:20 a.m. ET. It was edited at 9:35 p.m. ET. We should point out that, as often happens when stories such as this are developing, information may come in that later turns out to have been incorrect. That includes information from presumably well-informed officials such as this general. We'll continue to sort through what's out there and update if things change.

-- Update at 1:30 p.m. ET. Prime Minister's Office Disputes General's Account: "Adding to the confusion," The New York Times reports, "Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, spokesman for the prime minister's office, said in a telephone interview that he had checked with senior military officials, who told him there was no evidence that the plane had recrossed the Malaysian peninsula, only that it may have attempted to turn back."

"As far as they know, except for the air turn-back, there is no new development," Tengku Sariffuddin told the Times. He added, the newspaper says, that the general's comments about the plane being tracked to the Straits of Malacca are "not true."

-- Update at 12:30 p.m. ET. CIA Director Doesn't Rule Out Terrorism: "The director of the Central Intelligence Agency said on Tuesday that intelligence officials could not rule out terrorism as a factor" in the jet's disappearance, Reuters reports. "You cannot discount any theory, " CIA Director John Brennan said. (Update at 1 p.m. ET.)

-- Stolen Passports. There's word that Malaysian authorities believe the two passengers on board who had stolen passports "were Iranians who authorities believe were trying to migrate to Europe," as the Los Angeles Times writes.

One of the men, NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from Shanghai, has been identified as 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad. Frank tells our Newscast Desk that the young man was apparently "flying from Kuala Lumpur, through Beijing and Amsterdam, to Frankfurt, where his mother was waiting for him."

Malaysia's inspector general of police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, said Tuesday that "we believe he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group and we believe he [was] trying to migrate to Germany."

"The other man traveling on a stolen passport was not named," the Times adds, but authorities believe he too was an Iranian trying to immigrate to Europe.

The news that at least two people on board had stolen passports led to speculation about the possibility they were connected to a terrorist organization. But as NPR's Brian Naylor reported on Morning Edition, stolen passports and other fraudulent travel papers are a growing problem around the world and are used for a wide variety of reasons.

The airline said Tuesday that searchers are also looking "on land in between" — that is, on the Malay peninsula between the South China Sea and the Malacca Strait. According to the airline, "the authorities are looking at a possibility of an attempt made by MH370 to turn back to Subang," an airport on the peninsula.

-- Four Focuses. It likely won't be until the plane is found that investigators can start to figure out exactly what happened and whether some sort of catastrophic mechanical failure was responsible for its disappearance. But as the investigation continues, police in Malaysia are also concerned about four possibilities, the inspector general said Tuesday: "hijacking, sabotage, personal problems among the crew and passengers, and psychological problems among the crew and passengers."

-- No Missing Passengers. Also Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines sought to correct earlier reports about five passengers who allegedly checked in, had bags put on the flight, but then did not board the plane. Those earlier reports indicated that the bags supposedly put on board were removed before the plane took off. But the airline now says that "there were four (4) passengers who had valid booking to travel on flight MH370, 8 March 2014, but did not show up to check-in for the flight." Since they had not checked in, those four did not have any baggage that needed to be removed from the jet, the airline says.